MEGAN WAGNER LLOYD

Happy Book Birthday to SQUISHED!

Published on March 7, 2023March 5, 2023 by meganwagnerlloyd

Absolutely delighted to share that SQUISHED is out now and available to buy wherever books are sold!(Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Bookshop, or your local indie!) Can’t wait for all of you ALLERGIC readers out there to meet Avery and her family in SQUISHED!

: ) Megan

P.S. A little more about SQUISHED:

From the powerhouse duo behind the instant bestseller Allergic comes a spirited new graphic novel about finding your own space… especially when you’re in a family of nine!

Eleven-year-old Avery Lee loves living in Hickory Valley, Maryland. She loves her neighborhood, school, and the end-of-summer fair she always goes to with her two best friends. But she’s tired of feeling squished by her six siblings! They’re noisy and chaotic and the younger kids all love her a little too much. All Avery wants is her own room — her own space to be alone and make art. So she’s furious when Theo, her grumpy older brother, gets his own room instead, and her wild baby brother, Max, moves into the room she already shares with her clinging younger sister Pearl! Avery hatches a plan to finally get her own room, all while trying to get Max to sleep at night, navigating changes in her friendships, and working on an art entry for the fair. And when Avery finds out that her family might move across the country, things get even more complicated.

Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter have once again teamed up to tell a funny, heartfelt, and charming story of family, friendship, and growing up.

New graphic novel Super Pancake is out now!

Published on February 20, 2023February 20, 2023 by meganwagnerlloyd

SUPER PANCAKE is available now everywhere books are sold! You can find to-buy links here, and you can add it to your Goodreads here!

I’m so happy to have this chance to entertain young readers with this very breakfast-y book full of humor and hijinks (and henchtoasts!). I know that Abhi and I had a ton of fun making it. Enjoy!

xo Megan

P.S. To those who are asking already (hooray!), Peggy, Luc, Professor Egg, and all of Breakfast Town will return next year in book two!

Happy Publication Day to HAVEN!

Published on August 16, 2022August 16, 2022 by meganwagnerlloyd

HAVEN: A SMALL CAT’S BIG ADVENTURE is out today from Candlewick Press! Hooray!

The cover of the book HAVEN: A SMALL CAT'S BIG ADVENTURE by Megan Wagner Lloyd

It’s available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook. Happy reading!

For more about my inspiration for writing HAVEN, read below.

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR MEGAN WAGNER LLOYD
A s a child with animal allergies, I loved books with animal main characters. This may seem counterintuitive, but I think that, having no pets of my own,
I jumped at the chance to spend time with animals in one of the only ways I could—through my imagination. Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in the Willows,
The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Redwall, Stuart Little . . . these books entranced me.
Like the anthropomorphized animals in the stories I loved, I was little and vulnerable and a part of a wider world that was mostly a mystery to me. I was also very shy and easily frightened. And yet, in my fictional animal friends, I saw how someone small and fragile could, step by challenging and treacherous step, become stronger and braver—and forge the best of friendships along the way.
In 2014, I moved to the East Coast after more than fifteen years away. That October, autumn unfolded before me like a dream. I drank it in. I couldn’t watch its reds and oranges and yellows long enough, couldn’t walk among the crispy crunching leaves far enough, couldn’t observe its constant changes fast enough.
I jotted down observations. A neighborhood cat silhouetted among the yellow leaves. A fox curled up in the sun, its muzzle tucked under its auburn tail. Deer stepping delicately among the trees, going still at every sound. It was a glorious surge of beauty and over too soon, like the last few dancing flickers of a fire before dying.
As the fallen leaves gave way to winter’s frost, which in turn gave way to the snowdrops of spring, a story grew in me. A story of the fall, the forest, a fox, an unlikely friendship . . . and a cat named Haven. A small, homebody, cozy-loving cat. A cat who, like my childhood self, would feel even smaller when faced with the call to adventure. A cat who would somehow find the strength to do what needed to be done anyway.
I can only hope that, like I once saw myself in Wilbur, Mole, Ralph, Matthias, Stuart, and others, today’s young readers will see themselves—and their ability to become bolder and stronger and braver and truer—in Haven.

Megan’s Comics/Graphic Novel Writing Resources

Published on December 3, 2020December 26, 2023 by meganwagnerlloyd

I was planning on writing a “how I write graphic novels” series of posts, like I did with picture books…but I keep getting stuck! I think perhaps I’m still so new to my process that I’m not quite ready to break it down and explain it to others yet. So, in lieu of those posts (for now), I thought I’d share this resource list. (My apologies to those who were hoping for more detail. I hope this is enough information to get you started!)

I came into comics without knowing anyone in the industry or anyone else who was writing graphic novels. I just really wanted to write graphic novels! I told my agent I wanted to learn how to write comics in 2017…and now my first graphic novel ALLERGIC, created with illustrator Michelle Mee Nutter, comes out in March from Graphix/Scholastic! These are the books and online resources I used along the way (and a few that I’ve found since!).

GENERAL

Understanding Comics and Making Comics by Scott McCloud

These books are my #1 recommended resources. Very insightful and instructive.

“How to Make a Comic Book”—a Coursera online course

(Free or you can pay to have your assignments graded, etc.)

“Comics: Art in Relationship”—a Kadenze online course

(Free or you can pay if you want credit.) (I didn’t discover this one until after writing ALLERGIC.)

“The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture”—an edX online course

(Free or you can pay if you want a certificate.) Recommended if you are writing a superhero story or just want to learn more about the history of comics.

Graphic Novel TK—a podcast

Very detailed-oriented podcast about comics and the publishing world in general. (Another resource that I didn’t find until after writing ALLERGIC.)

Faith Erin Hicks—a collection of posts on making comics

ON SCRIPTING/FORMATTING A GRAPHIC NOVEL

As far as I have been able to tell, there is no One True Way to format a graphic novel script. And you can see that in the varying approaches below. I think it’s about finding what works best for you, and, if you are not doing the illustrations, what works well for both you and your collaborator.

Jarrett J. Krosoczka (This one’s more like a film script.)

http://thejjkblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/scripting-hey-kiddo.html

Matthew Holm (And this method is more of a collaborative/storyboarding approach.)

http://www.matthewholm.net/2010/06/graphic-novel-manuscript-formatting.html

Fred Van Lente (This panel by panel breakdown is the formatting I use, with the understanding that the illustrator is free to switch things up as needed.)

http://www.blambot.com/articles_script.shtml

RECOMMENDED READING:

My favorite kids and YA comics can be found on my Goodreads.

(last updated by MWL December 2020)